


Laws of Physics

by necromimetics



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Graduate School, Graduate Student Instructor Alec Lightwood, Graduate Student Instructor Magnus Bane, Law Student Alec Lightwood, M/M, Mutual Pining, Physics Student Magnus Bane, alec lightwood panics around cute boys, magnus bane is gorgeous as always, simon lewis is.....y’all know how he is
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-06-26
Packaged: 2020-03-06 15:08:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18853549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/necromimetics/pseuds/necromimetics
Summary: Alec Lightwood is a stressed law PHD student, overworked lecturer, and certified despiser of all things math.Magnus Bane is a gorgeous physics PhD student and genius lecturer with a laugh like an angel’s symphony and a mind that could put Einstein to shame.—————Based onthis tumblr post





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A giant thank you to [@expeanut](https://archiveofourown.org/users/expeanut/pseuds/expeanut) for coming up with the idea, being my beta reader/encouragement, and also for yelling with me about this AU until 5 in the morning.

Alec turned to the expansive whiteboard, blinking up at it for a moment. Sure, he was running on twenty minutes of sleep and four coffees, but was he hallucinating? The scribbles that covered the board definitely weren’t English, or any other language he’d ever seen before.

With dawning horror, Alec realized that it was not an ancient demonic language, and instead appeared to be math

“What the fuck,” he said aloud, despite not intending to curse in front of his entire lecture hall. “Someone get me an eraser before I pass out.” 

A couple of his students giggled behind him and a kindly underclassman sat in the front row scurried up to him, pressing an eraser into his hand.

Mechanically, Alec erased every trace of the complex formulas covering the board and felt himself begin to relax slightly. He scrawled his name in the upper right corner of the board and turned around to his students, face emotionless but calm. In control. 

Alec was in his element when he lectured. He loved it, although you wouldn’t necessarily know it looking at him. He kept himself in a solider’s stance normally, shoulders back and hands clasped behind him. He moved around the classroom easily, eyes darting among the students like a hawk searching out prey. He’d spawned quite a few nicknames for this behavior, with students calling him “the General” or, more commonly, “Lieutenant Hardass.” 

He would admit, he wasn’t an easy grader. It wasn’t an easy class. Why should it be? If these kids actually wanted to be lawyers they better get used to it. 

He finished off the lecture by assigning about a hundred pages of reading to a chorus of groans from his students. He scoffed at it. Sure, it was dense material, but again, this was a university, not a kindergarten. 

“Make sure to hand in your essays to me before you leave!” he called out over the din of seventy-odd students packing their things and heading for the door. Alec crossed the room to stand next to his desk, hands still clasped behind his back, giving short, sharp nods to each student as they placed their papers down on the corner of the battered wooden object. 

When every student has filtered out of the classroom, Alec let his shoulders drop a little, relaxing his tense muscles. He turned to the desk, pulling his heavy messenger bag over his shoulder and wincing a little as he settled it. His shoulder was getting sore from carrying that thing around all the time. Damn, he really needed to go to the gym sometime, stretch out all his muscles, lose himself in the exhaustion. Thoughts still distracted as he tried to figure out a way to force at least an hour of boxing into his weekly schedule, Alec readjusted his bag and picked up the stack of papers in front of him. Sighing, he resigned himself to a long night of grading and turned towards the door. 

“You’re a very impressive lecturer.” The voice was smooth, soft, and Alec didn’t recognize it. 

It startled him enough for him to drop the giant stack of papers in his hands, sending them cascading across the linoleum floors. He cursed under his breath, putting off collecting the essays to turn towards the source of the voice. 

“I didn’t mean to startle you.” The man gave a melodic laugh and Alec’s brain finally cooperated enough for him to focus fully on the other. The man was seated on top of one of the desks in the front row, legs crossed, leaned back on his hands casually. Alec had no idea how he hadn’t noticed him, had he been there the whole time? No, Alec definitely would have noticed someone that attractive sitting in his front row. The man wasn’t even a student of his, he didn’t think. Alec blinked slowly at him, taking in his somewhat eccentric blood-red suit and eventually managing to focus on his face.

Alec had definitely seen before him before. Sometimes he left the classroom just as Alec was entering, and he was pretty sure he had seen the man around campus more than a few times. He thought of several instances in which their eyes had met and the other man had offered him a quick flash of of a smile. He dimly remembered a name. Magnus Bane. And of course he would remember, even in his exhausted state, because Magnus’s Bane was gorgeous. Not just handsome or nice-looking, the man was stunning. He was toned, that Alec could tell even through his well-tailored suit, with broad shoulders and arm muscles to die for. He was just a touch shorter than Alec, some of the difference made up by his finely coifed hair. The way it shone even under the harsh lighting of the lecture hall made Alec want to run his hands through it, he was sure it was as soft as silk. His eyes were the kind of brown that shone gold, with the touch of dark blue eyeshadow and trace of black eyeliner on his lids accentuating the sparkle in them. Alec had never really understood the whole makeup thing on girls, but now he definitely got it. 

It wasn’t until Magnus stood up from where he had been perched on a desk, crossing over close to him that Alec realized he had just been staring into the other man’s eyes for an inordinate amount of time. He fumbled for words, mouth opening and closing.

Magnus saved him the embarrassment by extending a hand. 

“I’m Magnus Bane, it’s lovely to finally meet you.” 

Alec gave a slightly dopey smile, extending his own hand to grasp Magnus’s. 

“Alec,” he replied, the smile remaining on his face, his mind a little spacey still, but who could blame him when he gripped Magnus’s hand and it was warm and solid, the press of cold metal from the shorter man’s numerous rings stark against his skin. 

Magnus smiled at him warmly, his lips quirking upwards ever so slightly more at the way Alec clasped his hands behind his back tightly as soon as he pulled away from the handshake, as through he was unsure where to put them and reverting to his default. There were a few moments of pure silence, in which Magnus appraised Alec and Alec mostly just tried to memorize every single detail of Magnus’s face. 

“I should help you pick up those papers. How terribly rude of me.” Magnus finally broke the silence, sinking to his knees in front of Alec and Alec couldn’t help the filthy images that popped into his head at that. This interaction alone was going to give him masturbation material for weeks. Forcing his legs to cooperate with every bit of willpower he possessed, Alec knelt down beside Magnus and began collecting essays, forming them into a neat stack. Magnus settled the papers he had collected on top of those Alec had gathered and then stood up gracefully, offering a hand to Alec to help him stand.

Alec took it and he could swear he felt electricity tingling in the places that his skin touched Magnus’s. 

“Thanks,” he managed to mutter out. His voice sounded so unsure and he cursed himself for his lack of poise. He was a lawyer for god’s sake, training to be a law school professor. Composure was his forte, he always had a tight rein on his emotions. Yet, here he was, stuttering like a teenager because an attractive man was paying attention to him. 

Alec realized with horror that he was still holding Magnus’s hand, although he was stood up straight already, and he had been gazing into Magnus’s eyes for far too long again. For the second time in ten minutes. He was a goner. 

Alec stumbled backwards, pulling his hand from Magnus’s grip and putting a few steps of distance between them, enough that he couldn’t quite see the way the glitter in Magnus’s eyeshadow made his irises sparkle or the shine from the tiny bit of wetness on the other man’s bottom lip and _god_ those lips. 

Magnus laughed, not unkindly, bringing up a beringed hand to cover his mouth and stifle the giggles. Alec was definitely hallucinating from lack of sleep at this point because it was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard in his life.

Once the laughter had died down, Magnus continued the conversation with a smile.

“I want to reiterate how impressed I am. Even to the uninitiated your lessons are captivating.” 

“It’s nothing special,” Alec replied, wincing at how harsh it sounded but nonetheless trying to deflect the compliment.

“Oh but it is! Anyone who can talk to me about the topic of legal ethics without boring me to death in the process honestly deserves a medal.”

“It’s not boring!” Alec interrupted, a little indignant.

Magnus just smiled at him.

“A tad dry, for my tastes. But I could watch you all day.” Magnus took a step forward, then another, closing the distance between them until Alec could almost feel his breath. “It’s clear you have a very strong sense of justice, Alexander.” 

The words took his breath away for a reason he couldn’t quite articulate, so Alec decided to focus instead on the most topical aspect.

“Alexander?” he questioned, a little dumbfounded. He had gone by Alec since he was a kid, and was now just as accustomed to “Professor Lightwood.” But not Alexander, the last time he had been called that had to have been more than a decade ago. He never liked the name, always preferring the nickname his younger sister Izzy had bestowed upon him as soon as she could talk. It was her first word, he had been leaned against the bars of her crib, peering in when she reached her tiny hands out towards his face, not able to formulate his full name and instead calling out “Alec! Alec!”

He never liked his full name. It was what his father had called him when he was a child. But somehow, coming out of Magnus’s mouth, he never wanted to be called anything else.

“I already knew who you were. Students talk, you know. I’ve just been waiting for the right moment to introduce myself.” 

Alec nodded slowly, wondering why anyone who had heard of him through his students’ accounts would ever want to meet him in person. His parents had drilled into him from a young age that it was more important to be respected than liked, and he certainly abided by that in the classroom. 

“The topic itself is still a little boring,” Magnus teased, and before Alec could say something defensive Magnus caught him off-guard.

“What bores you?”

“Huh?” Alec’s hands dropped to his sides, blindsided by the question. 

“If hundreds of pages of dense legal jargon can’t do it, what does?” 

“Not much.” Alec replied, unsure of himself. “I like learning. I like studying.” 

“Is that so?” Magnus questioned, arching an eyebrow artfully. “You seemed to have quite the visceral reaction to my physics formulas.” 

It was at this point that Alec took into account that the beautiful man in front of him had watched him loudly curse in front of his students at the mere sight of a math equation. Several seconds later, his brain finally processed all of the words that had been spoken to him and he felt the urge to bolt for the door upon the realization that Magnus was, in fact, the lecturer who had written those formulas on the board. And by extension, understood said formulas. 

_“I must look like an idiot,”_ he thought miserably. As if his week wasn’t already bad enough, he just had to humiliate himself in front of the breathtakingly handsome physics teacher who could somehow wipe his brain clean of all coherent thought with just a flash of his brown-gold eyes and a quirk of his sinfully perfect lips.

He collected himself carefully and quickly, bringing his hands behind his back again so he could worry at the soft skin between his thumb and pointer finger with the fingers of his other hand, giving him something to focus on.

“I just...I’m not really a math person. It doesn’t make sense to me the way everything else does.” 

“That’s quite alright,” Magnus assured him. “Although...” A mischievous smile crept onto his face and he placed his pointer finger against his bottom lip, tapping it lightly and looking deep in thought. “You would be surprised how many people think they’re bad at math just because they haven’t had a good teacher.”

Alec tore his eyes away from where they had fixated on Magnus’s lips.

“Is that so?” he replied, somewhat disbelieving. 

“Very much so.” Magnus gave him a dazzling smile. “You know, I’d be more than willing to give you a little bit of personal tutoring in physics.” His voice was silky smooth and the emphasis he put on “personal” made the tips of Alec’s ears flush red. “Wouldn’t want you to pass out in class and hurt that pretty little head of yours, now would we?” 

Alec hated math. He’d always hated math. He spent many a long night pouring over SAT prep books, desperately trying to force the information to click in his brain just enough to boost his score by a hundred points. Or, worse yet, when he’d had to practically beg Izzy to teach him integration by parts so he didn’t fail his Calculus 101 exam and destroy his GPA freshman year. He distinctly remembered throwing his high school physics book out of his bedroom window once.

But, this was Magnus Bane, the most beautiful man Alec had ever seen in his life, offering to spend his free time with him. Who wouldn’t jump at the chance, he reasoned. 

He opened and closed his mouth once before finally gaining control of all of his muscle groups and managing to push out a full sentence.

“I’d really like that.” 

With a flourish, Magnus pulled a pen from his breast pocket and scribbled a series of numbers into the margins of one of the essays Alec had cradled in his arms. His writing was genius-messy but also kind of beautiful, with an old-fashioned script quality to it. 

“Call me,” Magnus almost purred, leaning in a little too close to finish writing out the number before pulling back and sauntering out of the classroom. 

Alec simply stared for a few minutes, watching Magnus retreat down the hallway. 

_“Shit, he has a really nice ass,”_ he thought to himself.

He cast his eyes downward to the number scrawled across one of his student’s essays and noticed dimly that the dashes had been replaced by tiny hearts with arrows piercing them. 

Magnus Bane was going to be the death of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alec’s nicknames from his students taken directly from the nicknames me and my classmates called our forensics teacher. Long Live Lieutentent Hardass. 
> 
> I accept prompts and fic ideas on tumblr [@cursedlightwood](https://cursedlightwood.tumblr.com)
> 
> Comments provide me seratonin molecules that I can then use to write more chapters.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It has been so long and I am so genuinely sorry and I would say that I will do better but I am a disaster and writing is hard. Anyways, enjoy!

Alec tried to grade papers. He really, honestly tried. But once four hours had passed and he’d only finished one essay, essentially spending the rest of the time staring at Magnus’s phone number, he realized he was fighting a losing battle. 

He groaned, dropping his head onto the table in front of him. Why couldn’t he get Magnus out of his head? If he called right now would he seem too eager? Magnus was probably just being nice. Maybe he actually wanted to help Alec with physics.

_“Or,”_ the hopelessly romantic part of him piped up, _”He just thought you were cute and he was using it as an excuse to see you again.”_

The rational part of Alec’s brain told that side of him exactly where it could shove that optimism. 

After a few more agonizing moments, Alec swept the papers up into his arms and shoved them unceremoniously into his messenger bag, standing up and stretching his back slightly. There was no point in exhausting himself if he wasn’t even getting anywhere. He could go home, do some chores, and eventually his roommate’s crazed chatter would send him into hiding in his room, at which point he might be able to focus enough to work.

———

Alec opened the door to his apartment, wrinkling his nose at the ever-present scent of cigarette smoke from the previous owner. If he ever had enough money he’d rip up the carpets, he thought, looking down at them in disgust. They probably hadn’t even been properly cleaned since the 70’s. Well, actually, he amended, if he had enough money he’d move into an apartment that wasn’t a shithole. He sighed, kicking off his boots by the doorway and considering his original plan of doing chores before thinking better of it. He really wasn’t sure he had the energy for an extended one-sided debate on Star Wars, or whatever else his roommate happened to be fixated on. Instead, he made a beeline for his bedroom, hoping that he could avoid any encounters if he was quick enough.

Unfortunately, luck just wasn’t on his side.

“Alec!” Simon came streaking into the room like a lightning bolt, sheaf of papers in one hand and a pencil behind his ear. 

“Hello, Simon,” Alec replied simply, nodding his head courteously. 

Simon had been his roommate through his last year of law school, and probably would be until he finished his doctorate. He might be annoying as all hell at the best of times and not know when to shut up but he left Alec alone when he asked, cleaned up after himself, and paid rent on time. When you were renting the world’s worst apartment, those qualities were hard to come by in a roommate. When Alec had found Simon they’d decided to stick with it. 

Simon could obviously tell Alec wasn’t in a great mood, so he held up his hands and gave a dorky smile. “I’m on my way out! I’m meeting Clary and Maia in an hour.” 

Alec nodded. 

“I have a concert on Friday,” Simon added hopefully, giving Alec puppy dog eyes that he already knew wouldn’t make a difference. “If you want to come.” 

“I’ll try to make it,” Alec replied honestly. Simon’s music wasn’t...bad. Per se. Some of it was actually quite good, and while he wouldn’t admit it, Alec had a few of his songs added to his playlists. He was just so busy that he often didn’t have time (and when he did, he would show up late and stand in the back, not wanting to give Simon the satisfaction).

“Awesome!” Simon was practically bouncing on his feet. “I’ll, uh, let you do whatever you need to do!” As quick as he had appeared, Simon slipped into his room. 

Once he was out of sight, Alec let his lips quirk into a fond smile and then headed into his own room. Sometimes, Simon wasn’t so bad after all. 

———

Alec stared at the next paper, the one with Magnus’s number decoratively inscribed in the side margins. He’d organized his papers in alphabetical order, as usual, and started working through them backwards, doing his best to ignore the series of digits that had entirely ruined his evening’s productivity. Unfortunately, that was something he could no longer do, with the essay staring up at him demanding to be graded. 

He could just cover the number in white-out and hand the paper back like normal. 

That’s what he should do, actually.

And yet...

With a groan Alec opened the drawer of his desk and pulled out a staple remover. Ever so carefully, he separated the pages and pulled away the first, with Magnus’s number decoratively inscribed. 

He paused when he reached the door of his room, opening it slowly and sticking his head out to make sure Simon was nowhere in sight. Satisfied with the result, Alec moved quickly over to the printer settled near their small shared bookshelf- Alec’s shelves sagging under the weight of law volumes and Simon’s crammed with comics and a collectors edition of The Lord of the Rings that the other man protected like it was his own child.

Glancing around again, just as a precaution. Alec set the sheet face down on the scanner, a scrap of paper covering Magnus’s number. After a moment of considering if this was actually the course of action he should take, Alec shut the lid of the scanner and pushed the copy button slightly harder than was strictly necessary. 

The sound of his phone ringing in the other room nearly made him jump out of his skin. When he finally processed the annoyingly bubbly pop song his sister had set as her ringtone, he abandoned the printer and headed in to answer with a roll of his eyes. 

“Iz, what is it?” 

Izzy launched into a ridiculously long tirade about her boyfriend, some guy named Meliorn that Alec wasn’t even sure he’d ever met. Apparently he was just being too distant. And evasive. Or something. Alec was generally a great listener, even when it came to details about Izzy’s love life that he honestly didn’t need to know, but he was just too distracted. 

He made his way back to the printer, eyes widening when he saw Simon standing by it, holding two pieces of paper in his hands and squinting at them. 

“Iz, I’ll have to call you back,” Alec said distractedly, hanging up the phone and striding over to Simon.

Simon grinned as soon as his eyes settled on Alec. 

“Hot for teacher, huh?” He waved the paper around, grinning. “I can’t believe you’re actually going for this, Alec.” 

“I’m not-“ Alec grabbed for the papers but Simon danced away, laughing. 

“Wait.” Simon squinted at the paper again. “So is...is Heidi a boy?”

“No! It’s not-“ Alec shook his head in frustration. “Give me those!” 

Simon just smiled wider, dancing away again when Alec reached for the papers and then holding them in front of him, fingers poised over where the number was written. 

“On one condition: you tell me whose number this is and three facts about them, or I will rip this up, rendering it unreadable.” 

“I’ve already memorized the number,” Alec deadpanned, delighting in the look of shock crossing Simon’s face. 

“Sometimes I hate you and your...” Simon gestured exasperatedly towards Alec, “Brain.” 

“Not as much as I hate your mouth,” Alec replied, grabbing for the papers again but just missing when Simon moved them out of his reach. “Give those to me.” 

“It’s clear you still want them even though you’ve memorized the number!” Simon moved the papers behind his back. “Give me a name.” 

Alec grit his teeth. Simon was a lot of things, but above all persistent. He might as well just rip the bandage off now.

“Magnus Bane.” 

“Ooh! I like that! Is that a pornstar name? Or a stripper name? It kinda sounds like a stripper name! Sexy, though, I can see why you’re going for it. But why was a stripper writing his number on your papers...” 

Alec shut him up by snatching the papers from his hand and heading back into his room, face burning with embarrassment. 

———

Alec rested his head in his hands, still only about halfway through grading the paper. It wasn’t that Heidi’s writing was particularly atrocious, she was just somehow the worst ethics student he’d ever met in his life. She would make a great lawyer, at least, he thought grimly. Biglaw firms didn’t tend to concern themselves with ethics, legal or otherwise. It was part of the reason Alec decided to head into academia, after considering working at a nonprofit for a while. Studying legal ethics and eventually training the next generation of lawyers and law scholars seemed like the best way to make tangible change. Although, it didn’t seem like he was getting through to Heidi. Well, you can’t win them all. 

Simon’s voice outside his door and insistent knocking was almost a welcome distraction. Almost. 

“Alec! Alec! Alec holy shit!” 

Alec stood up from his desk, more thankful for the reprieve from grading than he was annoyed by Simon’s intrusion. He stretched his back for a moment before padding over the door and opening it just a sliver. 

Simon’s phone was unceremoniously shoved into his face. 

“MAGNUS BANE!” Simon practically yelled. “You meant MAGNUS BANE, the smartest man ALIVE! I saw him at a conference in August- you know, that one you refused to go to because you said it was for sad virgins even though you’re a sad virgin.” 

Alec narrowed his eyes at Simon, giving him a withering look that Simon promptly ignored and kept rambling. 

“I can’t believe I didn’t recognize the name immediately! Or maybe I just still can’t really believe that THE Magnus Bane asked you out. Anyways, so I saw him at that conference and he was _amazing_ , he’s such an incredible speaker! He’s brilliant! Alec, can you get his signature for me when you go on your date? Not to sell or anything. I don’t think there’s a market for signatures from prominent physics researchers. But maybe there will be! I guess I could ask Raphael to get me one, but everything with Raphael is so new and I don’t wanna scare him off by telling him I’m obsessed with his friend.” Simon stopped to give a wistful sigh. “Anyways, back to Magnus he’s seriously impressive. That guy is like, the next Stephen Hawking!” 

Simon was practically breathless with excitement by the end of his tirade, still waving his phone in front of Alec’s face. Alec finally managed to focus on it, the screen showing a YouTube video titled _Magnus Bane at Oxford University (2017)_.The video displayed a grinning Magnus, dressed to the nines in a well-fitted grey and purple suit. Alec noted that Simon had liked the video. 

“It’s not a date. And your boyfriend knows Magnus?” 

Simon, for his part, completely ignored both statements. “Alec I can’t believe you’re going on your first date like, ever and it’s with an actual genius. Like, a _visionary_.” 

“Since when do you care about physics,” Alec shot back, trying to close to the door completely, only stopped by Simon shoving his foot through. 

“I was double-majoring in physics and applied mathematics!” Simon set him with an indignant look that quickly fell into a grin. “Before I realized my true passion lies in music and dropped out. It would be a crime not to let my beautiful voice be heard.” 

Now that Simon had mentioned it, Alec did vaguely remember him talking about it at one point or another. Honestly, he tended to completely zone out the moment anyone began talking to him about math.

“So?” Simon fixed him with an annoyingly determined gaze, eyes bright with wonder. “When’s the date!” 

“I told you, it’s not a date!” Alec protested, voice flat. 

Simon’s expression turned skeptical. “Magnus Bane gave you his number and decorated it with hearts like a middle school girl and you think it’s not a date?” 

“He’s going to tutor me in physics.” Alec said sharply, hoping to at least derail Simon enough with that to escape the implications of Magnus having asked him on a date 

“You hate physics!” Simon exploded, fire in his eyes. “Izzy and I have been trying to get you to study this stuff for years! And then _Magnus Bane_ walks in and suddenly you want to learn physics? You haven’t even taken a math class since sophmore year of college!” 

Alec rolled his eyes and made another fruitless attempt at shutting his door. 

“I see right through you, Alexander Gideon Lightwood!” Simon pointed at Alec, ever-present smile widening to an almost ridiculous degree. “Go get him, tiger.”

“Please get out of my room. Also never say that ever again.” 

Simon held out his hands in a placating gesture. “Okay, okay, I’ll leave you alone. But only so you can call him and set up that date.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be out with Fray?” Alec replied, voice exasperated but still not managing to verge onto anger. As infuriating as Simon was, after years of being roommates Alec found him more tolerable than he ever thought possible. 

Simon waved a hand dismissively. “Some things are more important than drinks at the Hunter’s Moon. Most notably, acquiring sweet, sweet gossip to share over said drinks.” Simon wiggled his fingers playfully towards Alec. “It’s so much harder finding hot relationship drama when we’re all happily taken.” He sighed. “And when I let Clary and Maia talk about their relationship they just get distracted making out and I feel like the third wheel.” He considered for a moment. “I should start bringing Raphael. Speaking of, I’m sure he’ll be really interested in Magnus finding someone! But he might kill you, he’s kinda mean. But he likes me so maybe he won’t kill you if I tell him I like you. But if you hurt Magnus he definitely will even if I tell him not to so-“ 

“Tell anyone anything and I’ll end you,” Alec threatened, but there was no real fire behind it. Simon just responded with a playful salute and a wink that implied he was going to completely ignore Alec’s ever-so-polite request. 

“Actually leaving now!” Simon disappeared, letting Alec’s door slam shut behind him. Alec promptly half-collapsed against it, head resting on the cool wood, only vaguely even attempting to process the information that had just been thrown at him. 

———

It wasn’t until well after Simon had headed out the front door of their apartment, yelling something about not waiting up for him and “being safe” on his date with Magnus that Alec decided it was safe to type the number out into his phone. 

He carefully saved it under a hopefully-nondescript M- Izzy had a penchant for hacking into his cellphone when she thought he was hiding things about his love life from her. He could almost hear her voice now. 

_“If you didn’t own a phone from like, 2003, it wouldn’t be so easy, big brother! Plus, you’re like totally emotionally stunted. Someone has to force you to talk about stuff!”_

Excitement coursing through him despite himself, Alec pressed the call button and stretched out on his bed, phone to his ear. 

“Magnus Bane speaking.” 

Alec swallowed, a not-insignificant part of him screaming that this was a horrible idea. “It’s...Alec. From the college, earlier.” 

“Alexander! I’d been waiting for you to call.” He sounded much more excited about it then Alec had expected, and the thought made his heart beat a little faster. “I’d almost given up. Figured you’d thought better of it.” Again, Magnus’s tone surprised him, turning a little nervous. 

“No, of course not,” Alec replied quickly, hoping the desperation he felt to remove that tinge of doubt from Magnus’s mind didn’t leak into his voice. 

“So!” The confident tone returned to Magnus’s voice, coloring it so brightly it made Alec’s head spin a little. “When should we schedule your first lesson?” 

Alec paused momentarily, mind whirring through about seventeen possible responses before settling on one that sounded considerate.

“Pick a time that works for you first. I don’t want to disturb your schedule when you’re doing this for me as a favor.” 

Magnus gave a light laugh. “A favor? I’m the one that gets to stare into your eyes for an hour or so.” 

Okay, that was definitely flirting. Well, maybe he just acted like that with everyone. Izzy was a bit like that. God, were all people this complicated?

Alec’s short-circuiting brain decided silence might be the best answer.

“Sunday afternoon is free for me, if you want to do it so soon. Although, I understand if you would prefer not to meet on the weekends, in which case I could do early on Wednesday morning...or perhaps next Friday, after your class?” Magnus trailed off, question obvious in his voice. 

“Sunday is good for me, as long as it’s before five.” Alec felt a warm sensation spreading through his veins like sunlight at the idea of seeing Magnus so soon.

“Three then?” Magnus’s voice was light and cheery, mixed with the noise of shuffling papers filtering over the receiver. 

“Three,” Alec agreed. 

“It’s a date then!” Magnus replied brightly. 

Alec was incredibly thankful that Magnus wasn’t there to see the expression that crossed his face at that. 

“Yeah. Yeah. I’ll see you then.” 

“Have a good night, Alexander.” 

“You too, Magnus,” Alec finished before hanging up, realizing belatedly that he had been smiling from ear-to-ear the entire conversation. 

Alec Lightwood was fucked. He hadn’t even known Magnus Bane for a full day and he was already totally, completely, unimaginably fucked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not a lot of malec in this chapter, tragically. I may have gotten a little carried away writing Simon and Alec interaction but I just love their dynamic so much it’s so funny to me. 
> 
> Comments and kudos are deeply appreciated as always, I’d love to hear what you guys think!
> 
> Hit me up on tumblr [@cursedlightwood](https://cursedlightwood.tumblr.com)


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